But many of those of us who follow Christ absolutely are against both divorce and the subsequent marriage of the divorced–as we believe that Christ teaches these things to be wrong in all but a few limited circumstances. [

As we live our lives privately we hew to these principles. We also refuse to swear oaths of any type, refuse to have sex with anyone but our married heterosexual spouse, refuse to have abortions, refuse to work on Sundays, etc. Many of us refuse to go to any movie with a rating above G.

I’m not going to go through the red letters of the gospel right now and give you all of the actual teachings of Jesus Christ which back up these actions, but please trust me that I do have references. From Jesus, not Paul. I know a lot of you don’t trust Paul as being entirely Christlike.

Which is another conundrum. Which texts would we use to outline a Christlike state? The red lettered gospels only? The texts used by the Roman Catholic, the Protestant or the Anabaptist lines of Christianity?

Even Martin and I differ on the actual terms of being Christlike.

This is why I cling to libertarianism. It’s not some gruff desire to see the poor be unable to afford a private ambulance or some greedy desire to keep the poor out of good schools.

It’s because I believe in living my ENTIRE life in a Christlike fashion, and I believe in a PERSONAL journey of Christianity shaped by mystical revelations which are guided by sacred texts.

There is NO WAY AT ALL this faith of mine can be structured into a government of/by/for people because my faith is by nature a theocratic dictatorship, with all guidance coming from my spiritual leader. Not unlike the Moonies, except I personally do not believe my lord to be a lunatic or a liar.

I am really really bothered by those who wish to have a “christlike’ state while not following the Christlike principles.

There’s this big trend now which emphasises the Good Nice Fun things that Jesus talked about–feed the hungry, clothe the poor, have socioeconomic parity.

Yet nobody seems to want to do the Hard Lonely Painful things that Jesus ALSO talks about–disavowing earthly society all together, abstaining from sex outside of marriage, abstaining from any earthly society interaction like going to movies, watching television, reading books.

Jesus is subversive for a lot of reasons and they don’t begin and end with the economy.

Folks should be happy with the Christians they have now. We are willing to open hospitals, drug treatment centers, homeless shelters, post-disaster relief, after school programs and schools themselves. We don’t in return ask that you all follow everything we follow. (Some do–I don’t) We’ve done all this because of our mandate–and we’ve spent much more throughout the course of history than any single earthly government ever has.

Folks should be especially happy with us Christian libertarians among you. We believe in doing all of these things without demanding any type of allegiance to our God or our code of life. In fact, we believe that the God himself commands us to refuse to ask you to act in such ways without following that God completely.

Writers’ Advice

"Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it.
Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window."
— William Faulkner